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John Calvin Gould (1821-1850)
}} Biography Mormon Battalion March 1846-47 Sometime before 1846, Samuel left his wife and family in Michigan, and taking his oldest son with him, joined the nearly 15,000 Mormons living in Nauvoo, Illinois. They were among the Mormons who began the westward exodus on Wednesday, the 4th of February. A temporary camp, known as Winter Quarters, was located on the western banks of the Missouri River in the unorganized territory of the United States across from Kanesville (called Council Bluffs after 1852) in the Iowa Territory. Over 500 men, along with fifteen to sixteen families and forty-five to fifty children volunteered. On Thursday, the 16th of July, five companies of men were mustered into service at Kanesville. Samuel Jacob Gould (1778-1869), almost sixty-eight years old and the oldest member of the Mormon Battalion, and his son, John C Gould, now twenty-six years old, were assigned to Company C under Captain James Brown. The following Monday, the Mormon Battalion left on a 200-mile, ten-day march for Fort Leavenworth (Kansas) where the new recruits were equipped with one blanket, a knapsack, a canteen that held three pints of water, smoothbore flint-lock muskets, a few cap-lock rifles for sharpshooting and hunting purposes and thirty six rounds of ammunition in a cartridge box for each soldier, one hundred tents, and all the necessary equipment for a long journey. Samuel and his son John were both part of the second detachment of sick soldiers that traveled with 84 others from Santa Fe to Pueblo, Colorado. 1847 Salt Lake Valley The following spring, on Thursday, the 3rd of June, 1847, Brigham Young dispatched Amasa Lyman and a small party from Winter Quarters to intercept the soldiers at Fort Pueblo. The soldiers were directed to join Brigham Young and the first Pioneer Company that had already left Winter Quarters for the move west. Amasa Lyman found Samuel with a small group pursuing trader Tim Goodale and few other traders who had stolen horses from the Mormons. The Battalion Advance Party caught up with Brigham Young and the Pioneer Company of 142 men, three women and two children at the Green River (Wyoming) on Saturday, the Fourth of July. In Salt Lake, Samuel Gould and James Dunn were appointed "lime burners." Their job was to crush and burn the lime in a kiln to make plaster that would cover the adobe brick walls. A ten-acre lot was laid out for a fort where about 160 families would spend the winter. 1847 Trip to Winter Quarters Two weeks later, on Thursday, 26th of August, after just one month in the Salt Lake Valley, 107 men including Samuel and John, were sent back to Winter Quarters with the "horse and mule train." After two long and difficult months of travel and with winter already setting in, the "Returning Pioneers" marched into Winter Quarters on Tuesday, the 31st of October. The streets of town were lined with people welcoming them When the winter was finally over and frost off the ground, Samuel and John accompanied the three companies of Mormons that left Winter Quarters for Salt Lake beginning on Monday, the 5th of June 1848. 1848 Return to Michigan In late 1848, after a nearly five year absense, Samuel and John returned to the family home and Michigan with their Mormon Battalion back-pay (probably Sapnish doubloons) to convince them to join the Mormons in Utah. Burial in Nevada 1850 Non-Cemetery Burial Specifically: Buried in an unmarked grave between the Carson River and the Humboldt Sink.